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Edwin Douglas Charles
Kansas City Athletics
Third Base
Born: April 29, 1933, Daytona Beach, FL
Signed: Signed by the Boston Braves as an amateur free agent before 1952 season
Major League Teams: Kansas City Athletics 1962-1967; New York Mets 1967-1969
Died: March 15, 2018, East Elmhurst, NY (age 84)
Nicknamed "The Poet," Ed Charles spent nine seasons toiling in the Braves' farm system playing for teams located in the still segregated south and composing poetry dealing with baseball and racism. The Braves had Eddie Mathews (#500) as their third baseman, blocking Charles, and he finally got a chance in the majors when the Braves traded him to the Athletics in December 1961. Charles was the regular third baseman for Kansas City between 1962 and 1965, hitting his career high for home runs in 1962 with 17 and for RBIs in 1963 with 79. He was named the third baseman on the Topps All-Star Rookie team for 1962.
In March 1967, Charles was traded to the Mets for Larry Elliot and cash. In 1969, in his final season as a 36-year-old veteran, he split time at third base with Wayne Garrett and provided leadership to the young Miracle Mets team. He hit the final home run of his career off the Cardinals' Steve Carlton (#477) on September 24th, helping the Mets clinch their first division title. In the 1969 World Series, Charles appeared in four games, scoring the winning run in Game 2 on an Al Weis (#516) single.
For his career, Charles appeared in 1,005 games, batting .263 with 86 home runs and 421 RBIs. In 2013, he was depicted in the movie 42, showing a young Charles waving to Jackie Robinson as Robinson departed Florida following spring training in 1946. The movie dramatized the incident, but Charles did in fact watch Robinson train with the Montreal Royals at their spring training home in Daytona, inspiring him to pursue his baseball dream.
August 5, 2020 from Cincinnati, OH - Card #139
In early August, I hit an eBay slump and lost out on every single card I had placed a reasonable bid on from a dealer breaking up a 1965 Topps set. It seems to me a lot of former and new collectors have returned or entered the hobby as an escape from the pandemic, and I'm noticing card prices for these 1965 Topps cards continuing to increase. I had bid on several cards up for auction from this set break, all graded EX+ or NM, with my highest bids being around $2.50. Every single card went for much more than that, with final winning bids ranging from $8.50 to $18. Again, these were all commons and from the relatively prevalent first series of the set.
Surprised by the outcome of those auctions, I turned to the always reliable Dean's Cards and the easier approach of clicking Buy It Now on four cards from the first series I felt were reasonably priced, including this Charles card.
Adding this card to our set achieved a major milestone, as we've now completed our first 9-card page in our 1965 Topps set binder.
The Card / Athletics Team Set
The back of Charles' card has plenty of accolades for his minor league play, and it's a shame he didn't get a break in the majors until the Braves finally traded him. The "big five man swap" as Topps calls it happened on December 15, 1961, with the Braves sending Charles, Joe Azcue (#514) and Manny Jimenez to the A's for Lou Klimchock (#542) and Bob Shaw (#428).
1965 Season
The 1965 Athletics lost 103 games, and Charles was arguably the team's MVP. In 134 games, starting 127 games at third base, Charles hit .269 with 8 home runs and 56 RBIs. He shared infield duties for the A's with Ken Harrelson (#479) at first, Dick Green (#168) at second and Bert Campaneris (#266) at shortstop.
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First Mainstream Card: 1962 Topps #595
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (8): 1962-1969
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1994 Upper Deck All-Time Heroes #62
49 - Charles non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 8/17/20.
Sources:
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database
Wikipedia
Previous Card: #34 Cal Koonce - Chicago Cubs
Next Card: #36 Bobby Wine - Philadelphia Phillies
The Glider.
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